AMHERST - Many adults who grew up in the modern world had the privilege of owning a mountainous collection of LEGO building blocks as kids.

LEGO added a constructive nature to many childhoods, and now an Amherst junior high school club is bringing it all back – while also throwing robotics into the mix.

The LEGO Robotics Club at E.B. Chandler Junior High School is a team of teenage students who aspire to be engineers and programmers in the future, while still taking the opportunity to enjoy working with LEGO.

The club meets after school on Thursdays, and builds all sorts of gizmos and gadgets, in which they apply math and engineering skills by programming electronic motors into the Lego devices, to function and complete simple tasks in a relay-like manner.

Kathlene Jennings is a Grade 7/8 Science teacher, and the team coach. She said while all of the robotics equipment is being used on loan from the Nova Scotia Community College, the team is working on fundraising to eventually purchase its own equipment.

“For the first couple of months, it was a bit problematic trying to deal with screens that weren’t working, and get all the bits and parts working properly so we could actually do something with it,” said Jennings.

“But right now, we have just sent out a letter campaign to the community in hopes that we can get some donations from the community in order to have that for the kids.”